A critical question I often get is: how much should I weight? What should my body fat be? The appropriate weight for each individual may vary. What’s the best way to achieve fat loss?
I tackle these questions everyday in the office. I draw on my 27 years experience at helping people lose weight and on new sports scientific findings into optimal weight loss techniques for both men and women. I look at the relationship between body fat, exercise, stress, diet, supplements and performance. I help clients identify complicating factors to weight loss and performance enhancement, because it is not enough just to say that the more you workout, the thinner you get, the better you feel. If only it were that easy…
I love to see body fat content decrease when I work with clients. The test I perform to measure body fat is called BIA (Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis). I have a machine that tells us how much body fat you have and how much lean muscle mass you have. It also tells me the number of calories you burn a day, as well as your water content amounts. Fat stores account for about 15-18% of total body weight in normal young men, and in young women the figure is about 25-30%.
Our fat stores are important and the fat cells play many key roles. As well as acting as a reserve of energy that can be called upon at times of need, fat is important in the structure of tissues, in hormone metabolism, and in providing a cushion that protects other tissues. Moreover, there’s good evidence that the immune system is impaired when body fat stores are too low. A reduced ability to fight infections means more interruptions to training and more chance of being sick on race day.
Let me help you identify strategies you can safely use to control weight and body fat, come into the office for your easy to perform body composition analysis.